43 Folders

Back to Work

Merlin’s weekly podcast with Dan Benjamin. We talk about creativity, independence, and making things you love.

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”What’s 43 Folders?”
43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

RSS of Public Library Check-outs and Requests Available for SF

ELF | Your Personal Email Library Reminder Service

Following-up on my earlier LazyWeb request for library account RSS feeds. Just last night, I requested that ELF add San Francisco’s public library to their collection of systems, and, bang, there it is when I wake up this morning: free RSS feeds of (and emails about) checked-out and on-request books with configurable reminders, mobile messaging, and a nice, simple interface. Looks pretty cool to use so far, and how fast was that service?

I still believe this is the sort of thing that ought to be built-in to almost any conceivable service, going forward. Grateful as I am for the hard-working folks who build things like ELF, it seems to me that consumers shouldn’t need to seek out third-party software, hacks, scraping, and clever chicanery to bubble up their important information in a smart, contextual way.

But, until it is truly ubiquitous among vendors and services, it seems like there’s a small but viable market for folks like ELF, RSS Calendar, and others to gobble up here.

Syndication ain’t just for kitty photos any more.

About Merlin

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Bio

Merlin Mann is an independent writer, speaker, and broadcaster. He’s best known for being the guy who created the website you’re reading right now. He lives in San Francisco, does lots of public speaking, and helps make cool things like You Look Nice Today, Back to Work, and Kung Fu Grippe. Also? He’s writing this book, he lives with this face, he suffers from this hair, he answers these questions, and he’s had this life. So far.

Merlin’s favorite thing he’s written in the past few years is an essay entitled, “Cranking.”

 
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Cranking

Merlin used to crank. He’s not cranking any more.

This is an essay about family, priorities, and Shakey’s Pizza, and it’s probably the best thing he’s written. »

Scared Shitless

Merlin’s scared. You’re scared. Everybody is scared.

This is the video of Merlin’s keynote at Webstock 2011. The one where he cried. You should watch it. »